US isolated as allies line up to join China-led bank

[malaise]

United States resistance to a Chinese-led Asian regional bank has left it isolated among its Asian and European allies and given some heft to China's frequent complaints that Washington wants to contain its rise as a world power.

South Korea, one of America's closest friends in Asia, announced Thursday it will join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, or AIIB, which is intended to help finance construction of roads and other infrastructure. Beijing has pledged to put up most of the initial US$50 billion in capital for the bank, which is expected to be set up by year's end.

The US has expressed concern the new bank will allow looser lending standards for the environment, labour rights and financial transparency, undercutting the World Bank, where the US has the most clout, and the Asian Development Bank, where it is the second-largest shareholder after Japan.

But since Britain broke with Washington two weeks ago and announced it was signing up for the AIIB, the floodgates have opened. France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland quickly followed. Last Wednesday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott heavily hinted Australia would also join.
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Thank Bushco for fugging up the Global economy in 2008. The world needs alternatives to rein in the imperialists.

[djean111]

1. "The US has expressed concern the new bank will allow looser lending standards for the environment,

labour rights and financial transparency,"
Oh, please. The austerity-loving World Bank and IMF?
And things like this, IMO, show the push for the TPP because CHINA is somewhat of a lie, as China is going to proceed as it wants anyway, and the TPP/TTIP is pretty much all about global corporate supremacy. Money and power, divorced from countries.

I am not cheering China on, or a China-ista or whatever the put-down is, but there was going to be a backlash against American imperialism, methinks.

[malaise]

2. Bwaaaaaaaaaaah hahahahha

I did laugh - the essential object of the IMF/World Bank

The key debate at Bretton Woods was between the British and US delegations representing, respectively, liberal and conservative visions of global economic institutions. The British delegation, led by Maynard Keynes, imagined that the new IMF should be a cooperative fund which member states could draw upon to maintain economic activity and employment through periodic crises. This view suggested an IMF helping governments to act as the US government had during the New Deal in response to the great recession of the 1930s.

By contrast, the US delegation to Bretton Woods foresaw an IMF more like a bank, making sure that borrowing states could repay their debts on time. This more conservative view was less concerned to avoid recession and unemployment. The US view prevailed, and set the stage for how economic crises have been handled since World War II (Harris 1988).

http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/sap/history.php